Dawn Editorials 11th September 2025

Widening war

ISRAEL’S bombardment of Hamas officials in Doha is more than a military strike. It is a strategic earthquake.

On Tuesday, Israeli jets struck a residential compound in Doha, targeting Hamas’s exiled leadership as they met to consider a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal. Based in Qatar since earlier assassinations forced them abroad, these men make up the group’s political bureau. The targeted leaders survived; others did not. Among the dead were bodyguards, aides and a Qatari officer.

A dangerous precedent has been set. For the first time, Israel has carried its campaign far beyond the battlefields of Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran, into the territory of one of the US’s closest Arab partners.

For years, Israel has treated its confrontation with Iran and its allies as a roving conflict without frontiers. Hezbollah in Lebanon, the former Assad regime in Syria, Houthi forces in Yemen, even Iranian soil itself — all have felt the reach of Israeli air strikes, assassinations and sabotage. Such operations, though destabilising, were often framed as part of a shadow war between two regional rivals, and tolerated by outsiders so long as they were confined to that axis.

But Qatar is no Iranian proxy. It is a wealthy Gulf emirate, host to America’s largest military base in the Middle East, and a ‘major non-Nato ally’ formally recognised by Washington. By striking in Doha, Israel has crossed a line with profound implications for regional security. It marks the first attack inside a Gulf monarchy, a symbolic escalation that will alarm every Arab capital and force uncomfortable questions about whether any state’s sovereignty is truly respected. Qatar, like Turkey and Egypt, has acted as a mediator in ceasefire talks. To bomb its capital while negotiations are underway is to undermine diplomacy itself.

It could also entangle the US, a prospect that some might even deem necessary if America is to knock some sense into Israel. Washington was reportedly briefed in advance, but Britain and other allies were not. The perception that Israel acts with impunity, heedless of the sovereignty of a partner as close as Qatar, will fuel Arab suspicions that the West cannot or will not rein it in.

The OIC and Arab League should draw the obvious conclusion. For decades they have responded to Israeli aggression with words and resolutions. And it is precisely this pattern of hollow declarations that has emboldened Tel Aviv’s war machine. Unless there is collective resolve — economic boycotts, diplomatic isolation, suspension of normalisation — Israel will continue to export its Gaza war across borders. So long as the belligerent state acts unchecked, no country, however distant, is immune. Today’s blow in Doha may become tomorrow’s strike in Cairo, Riyadh or beyond.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2025

Public insecurity

BIG Brother has been watching us. There have been multiple disclosures over the past year about how the activities of millions of Pakistanis are being monitored through a dystopian surveillance apparatus built quietly by the state. This system has now been studied in considerable detail by Amnesty International in a new, ominously titled report, Shadows of Control: Censorship and Mass Surveillance in Pakistan. The report examines the massive snooping capabilities that the Pakistani authorities now possess and warns of their many dangers. “In Pakistan, your texts, emails, calls and internet access are all under scrutiny. But people have no idea of this constant surveillance, and its incredible reach,” Amnesty notes in the report. One also feels compelled to point out this system’s immense potential for abuse by rogue actors, which has come to light in recent days following the leak of private data affecting thousands of high-profile citizens. It should be galling to any self-respecting citizen that the public’s money has been used to entrap it in this network of constant, intrusive surveillance. “Chinese, European, Emirati and North American companies” have provided the technology for this system, according to Amnesty, and the Pakistani state is using it without any legal checks in place.

Facing public pushback against their latest experiments in political control — an experiment referred to as the ‘hybrid model’ — the country’s security czars began deploying a nationwide internet monitoring system in 2018. This system was expanded vastly in 2023, at a time when public dissatisfaction was climbing sharply. Mere months after the controversial February 2024 general election, all telecom operators were mandated by the regulator to instal what is known as the Lawful Intercept Management System, giving intel agencies instant access to citizens’ call logs, private messages, browsing history and much more. This trajectory is reason enough to believe that this surveillance apparatus has not been created to secure the citizenry, but to safeguard the status quo. Alas, the courts seem least interested. Despite efforts last year by the Islamabad High Court to prevent abuse of surveillance powers, the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench removed the safeguards it had placed. It suspended the IHC’s order and has not heard the matter since last December. If the Pakistani people cannot expect protection from the courts, to whom must they turn? It is a troubling question to ponder.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2025

Tax directory

THE government’s decision to publish tax records — payments and declared incomes — of taxpayers may be justified to the extent of individuals holding a public office or position: parliamentarians, bureaucrats, judges, etc. After all, these individuals not only occupy positions of power but also draw their salaries and perks from the public exchequer, and the people have every right to know whether they are paying their tax dues honestly. Besides, transparent public scrutiny of these individuals strengthens accountability and works as a deterrent against corruption. This logic, however, cannot be applied to private citizens since public disclosure of their tax returns and wealth statements risks invasion of their privacy guaranteed under the Constitution. Nor does it serve the larger interest as in the case of public office holders.

If the authorities believe that someone is underreporting their incomes or evading tax payment, they must proceed against them under the law rather than expose their financial data to public eyes. The revival of the past practice of publishing a tax directory, after a five-year hiatus, which indiscriminately lists all taxpayers, may end up discouraging compliance rather than promoting it. The prime minister should take action to provide taxpayers quality public services — education, healthcare, clean drinking water, etc — instead of resorting to symbolic measures if he wishes to ‘honour and recognise’ them for shouldering the burden of financing the state. An even better way of recognising the contribution of honest taxpayers would be to implement credible reforms aimed at broadening the tax base and punishing tax cheaters to reduce the excessive tax burden on salaried individuals and compliant businesses. Publicising the tax records of taxpayers will not address the chronic tax revenue shortfall, which has resulted in one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios — regionally and globally. Without strong measures to reduce the burden on existing taxpayers, the exercise will be nothing more than a PR effort.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2025